A field in Denmark

A field in Denmark

by Bart Arondson

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up vote 12 down vote favorite
3

What resources are available online to give ideas for poses. Is there some type of catalogue of common poses?

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Would you be interested in book recommendations too? – AJ Finch Jan 20 '11 at 14:35
See also photo.stackexchange.com/questions/3032/… – mattdm Jun 7 '11 at 14:28

6 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted

Firstly: I strongly second @kacalapy with his recommendation of Digital Photography School.

Second, here are a few sites I've found:

  • Free Digital Photography Tutorials have a couple of nice pages (lots of clear examples nicely explained here and here
  • Jonathan Souer has a step-by-step guide here
  • I know this isn't online, but my go-to reference is actually a book on wedding photography, The Master Posing Guide for Wedding Photographers by Bill Hurter. He explains lots of principles and practice with plenty of example images. Anything by Bill is worth considering in this area.
  • To answer your request for a catalogue of poses, another book: 500 Poses for Photographing Women by Michelle Perkins.

Finally, I carry a cribsheet with me which contains the following advice:

  1. Check BACKGROUND
  2. Stand subject THREE QUARTERS to light
  3. WEIGHT on back foot
  4. FACE 7/8 to camera
  5. HEAD tilt slightly (near shoulder for ladies, far shoulder for men)
  6. EYES -> camera
  7. ARMS away from body (lift elbows / hold something / hands in pockets)
  8. SHOOT slightly down on subject

I hope that's some help.

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up vote 7 down vote

You can find hundreds of poses HERE. Another good place for information is DPSchool. You can also find some tips here, just scroll down some.

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up vote 1 down vote

This guide by Norm Haughey is helpful and covers posing and basic lighting:

Posing and Lighting to Flatter Your Subject — a guide by webphotoschool.com

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up vote 0 down vote

I would recommend buying a fashion magazine subscription or just flipping through one at the bookstore/library. You can get a lot of inspiration out of that.

I would advise that these aren't very helpful if you're looking to do traditional portraits. They're very applicable if you're trying to shoot fashion, or execute an edgier look.

Another resource would be portrait paintings. Any good art history book will have a catalog of great portraits with excellent classic poses.

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up vote -1 down vote

I collected a lot of posing techniques at my own www.promodelposes.com which could be useful for your needs: some useful posing guide can be in my opinion easily found there.

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So, you learned by creating the site? Please disclose affiliation when advertising your own pages here. – Imre Dec 9 '11 at 10:55
See this section of the faq. It's okay to refer to your own site when it is appropriate for the answer, but disclosure is required. Thanks! – mattdm Dec 9 '11 at 11:27

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